Tag: Fall 2009

Whether in the interest of education, risqué humor or shock value, student newspapers have transcended the health reporting boundaries and ventured into writing Sex and the City-type revelations and sexual exploits. As student writers bump up against some readers’ notions of taste and propriety, these columns and special editions have created their share of controversy.

In the cases of the more than 7,100 campus newspapers stolen this past year, the circumstances were clear: Free newspapers were removed from stands in overt acts of theft, amounting to thousands of dollars in stolen property. In other situations, it can be unclear what, if any, crime has been committed.

With gay marriage and the rights of the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community being debated on the national level, some school administrators seek to limit such speech in the schools, and student journalists are find it tough to report on the issues.

For decades, high school students have anxiously awaited the arrival of yearbooks —?a day filled with gushing over prom photos or exchanging books to sign personal messages. But Greg Ruiz thought there was a better way to remember his high school memories than with a traditional publication.

Government officials are no strangers to scandals. And —?as some Texas college journalists learned — neither is student government.

More than 30 years later and months after the latest round of legal interpretations, open records advocates, elected officials and journalists are questioning FERPA’s application and wondering just how far from the law’s original intent schools are willing to go to shield information from the public.

For both the student and professional media, user comments on Web sites are the basis of a growing number of lawsuits. Editors are attempting to grapple with how they should respond —?ethically and legally —?to controversial comments left on their sites by anonymous posters.

The reach of school officials has extended beyond the schoolhouse gate to the World Wide Web, where pictures on Facebook, a posting on MySpace or a comment on a personal blog can now mean punishments for students.

Search warrants, arrests, pepper spray — most student journalists manage to avoid extreme situations involving law enforcement while doing their jobs. However, two college photojournalists recently found themselves in situations that highlighted tensions between the press and the police